


and then restart

by gealach



Series: We shall burn [7]
Category: Dark Wolverine (Comics), Marvel (Comics), Wolverine (Comics), X-Men (Comicverse)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Families of Choice, Family, Future Fic, Gen, Nonbinary Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-22
Updated: 2015-03-22
Packaged: 2018-03-19 03:01:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3593877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gealach/pseuds/gealach
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A missing scene from my verse <i>We shall burn</i>, taking place sometime during "We will never be afraid again" and showing Eike's first shapeshifting.</p>
            </blockquote>





	and then restart

**2020**

“Maiko?”

Maiko didn’t look up from the thick volume she was studying from – or at least, she was _trying_ to study from. She was exhausted; the exam was getting closer and closer, and she had elected to avoid her rounds on the rooftops, and still it seemed she hadn’t enough time and she would _never_ pass.

“Am I bothering you?” Eike’s voice shook her from her reverie. She turned in her seat and saw him, hand still on the handle of the door.

“Of course not, pumpkin.” She smiled and waved him in. With a little sigh he came inside the room and closed the door behind him. He stood there awkwardly for while, wriggling his hands in front of him, almost as if he didn’t know how to approach whatever subject he wanted to talk about. “What is it, pumpkin? Did you wet the bed?”

He made an outraged face. “What? Mai-ko-ooo!” he pouted. “I’m a _grown-up!_ I don’t wet the bed.” Well, Mystique had _warned_ otousan that Eike had, just some days ago – and that he was still extremely embarassed by it. Maiko bit her tongue in an effort not to laugh.

“Sorry, pumpkin. What is it, then?”

“It’s a secret,” he whispered. “Uh, for now, I mean? Can you whisper?”

“Of course,” she lowered her voice conspirationally and pulled her legs up to fold them beneath her on the chair. “I’m all ears, pumpkin.”

“Okay, uh.” He looked down at himself – and then he hooked his fingers in the waistband of the pajama and lowered the trousers. He looked up at her with a sort of half-proud, half-unsure grin, and whispered: “Ta-dah!”

She stared. She hadn’t expected that. Eike was still so little – shouldn’t his powers manifest when he was a little bit older? “It’s – gone.”

“The willy? Yes!” Eike nodded enthusiastically and then brought the pants up again. “I shapeshifted!” he – she whispered, “And I tried to pee, because mama says that when you shapeshift you need to be sure that all the organs and everything are connected well, and –” she widened her eyes. “And it’s amazing! It’s a looooot easier to pee when you’re a girl! You don’t have to worry about the pee falling on the floor.” She nodded sagely. “What do you think? I told you first because I wanted to know if there were strange bits, I think I did everything right, I don’t think there were strange bits but maybe I didn’t see them –” she was whispering so quickly that it became jibberish.

Maiko blinked for a few times, thinking furiously. “This is – the _first_ time you shapeshift, pumpkin?”

“ _Yes!_ ” she stopped what she was saying and grinned, “And I did it all by myself!” she jumped a little, obviously excited. “Isn’t it great? It’s amazing, it’s amazing! Isn’t it? Uh?”

“That’s _fantastic_ , pumpkin,” Maiko whispered. “Why are we whispering?”

“Because it’s a surprise! Papa hears everything but if we whisper he shouldn’t, right? He’s in the living room. Oh, _no_ ,” she widened her eyes, “What if he heard and he knows already and –”

“No, I don’t think he’s hearing us,” Maiko reassured her. “But pumpkin, how did it happen? Just like that?”

“Pfff!” Eike stuck her tongue out at her, “Maiko, you don’t shapeshift _just like that!_ I was trying every night before sleep! And _that’s_ why I wet my bed the other night, okay?” she raised a finger, “I’m a grown-up and I don’t wet my bed. Nu-uh.” She shook her head.

She had been trying every night? _Wait a second_ – Mystique hadn’t said anything about that. “Pumpkin? Does your mom know that you were trying to shapeshift?”

Eike grimaced. “Uh, no? But that’s all right!” she whispered quickly at seeing Maiko’s stern expression. “I’m fine. And she said she shapeshifted for the first time when she was little too, and I wanted to try! And now I look juuuuuust like her! See?” she grinned, and Maiko couldn’t stay angry for long – still, Eike had been experimenting with things that were dangerous. Thank God nothing had happened, but what if she’d made some irreversible error? “You think she will be angry?” Eike asked suddenly.

 _With you? No. She will kill me for robbing her of this moment – your first time shapeshifting._ “Of course not, pumpkin. She will be very very happy and proud, you’ll see.” She leaned down and booped Eike’s nose, who wrinkled it. “But you should have told her, pumpkin. It’s dangerous –”

“But no! It’s really really easy! Now I know how to do it, look –” she squinted her eyes, brow wrinkling in concentration, and after a few seconds she opened her eyes again. Nothing had changed. She grinned. “Now I’m just a boy! I only have the willy.” Eike hooked the waistband and looked down, this time without showing her. “There’s no need to check this time, you see, because I normally pee with this, so my body knows where everything needs to go.”

Fascinated despite her worry, Maiko asked, “And to go back to normal?”

“Well, I just need to let go, I think?” his voice was dubious – he hadn’t really thought about it, had he? Maiko sighed.

“Do you want to try that now, pumpkin?”

“No no no, first I want to – show papa –” he shut his eyes again, wrinkled his brow – and this time he was taking far too much time. Experimenting was good, but this was something he ought to do under a shapeshifter’s tutelage – Maiko got up.

“Pumpkin, why don’t you – _whoa!_ ” she walked backwards quickly, shocked.

Eike opened an eye, experimentally. “Did it work?”

Her heart beating wildly, Maiko stared at the pale-skinned kid in front of her. Eike had obviously not a great grasp of his powers right now – after all, earlier he had probably only been deleting the male genitals while retaining the female, and then had done the opposite – but that he’d managed to do _this_ was uncanny. He’d changed skin, eye color – and eye form. The hair was still wild and red, though. “Yes, pumpkin. No more experiments for the night though, okay?” she said quietly, but firmly.

He nodded, and then asked for a mirror. As he stared at it, he squinted his eyes. “Have I got them right? They’re so strange.”

“What were you aiming for?”

“Well –” he shrugged, and pointed at her. “Like that. Yours and papa’s. Your eyes are so _strange_.”

“They look like ours now, yes.” In fact, if not for the hair color, Eike could now easily pass for a Japanese.

“Good!” he grinned. “Papa will be happy?” there was a sudden uncertainty in his voice and Maiko crouched in front of him, perplexed. She took the mirror from his hands and placed it on her chair.

“Of course. Why wouldn’t he be?”

“Because –” Eike looked at his feet. “Because maybe he wanted me to have claws like him and auntie and grandpa? But I have these powers. I look a lot like mama but I’m so different from papa. Maybe he’s sad.”

“Eike –” she took his hands, “Otousan loves you a lot. You don’t look like him, yes, but that’s not important. It doesn’t matter what powers you have, pumpkin. You’re otousan’s child and he loves you and he will always love you.”

Eike nodded, serious. “And he loves you a lot, too, and you don’t have powers.” He looked up.

“Yes. These things don’t matter, pumpkin. Because it’s all here.” She brought a hand to her chest and stood up, Eike’s hand still clutching hers. “Now, do you want to show otousan how good you’ve been to do this all on your own?” she smiled.

“Yes!” Eike grinned.

Otousan was reading in the living room, legs up on the couch. He raised his head at hearing them approaching – and his eyes widened almost comically behind his reading glasses. “ _Eike?_ ”

Eike left her hand and closed the distance between them in a few jumps, effectively throwing himself at otousan.

“ _Ooof!_ You’re heavy, monkey!” Otousan kept Eike at arms’ lenght, his gaze committing every little detail to memory. Eike was chatting quickly, his words a mixture of English and German, explaining what he had been doing these past few weeks – reiterating, with a whining voice, that he’d only wet the bed because he’d been focusing a lot – and all the various things Mystique had explained him about shapeshifting.

Maiko sat on the couch and listened as well, and together with otousan they asked questions and made remarks and _ohhh_ 'd and _ahhh_ 'd in all the right moments. Eike was clearly overexcited, happy with his accomplishment and worn out by the effort of using his powers for the first time – and soon he was snoring against otousan's chest, having returned blue as soon as he'd fallen asleep.

She should go back to her room and resume her studying, Maiko thought as she looked upon the picture in front of her. Otousan was entirely focused on Eike, his fingers caressing gently Eike’s hair, and he had such a soft expression on his face – and then he turned slightly, and smiled at her, a bright smile. “Come here, you.”

She settled beside him on the couch, and otousan draped his other arm around her shoulders and pressed a kiss to her temple. They talked quietly for a while, murmuring as not to wake Eike up, and eventually she felt tired, too – it was really late, and she needed to at least finish the chapter she had been reading –

But she didn’t get up, didn’t leave. It was safe and warm here, in otousan’s arms, and she fell asleep watching Eike’s relaxed face.

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to be a collection of snippets, but I abandoned that idea for now. I might add new chapters later.


End file.
